Travel Week!

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Here follows what i did for travel week:

Since the first few days in Florence, me and Ida had decided to meet up somewhere in Italy for my travel week, as a small vacation you could call it.
The easiest place to fly to was Milan, so that is where we decided to go. But only thing was that Ida would not be able to get here until the 1st of November, so that would leave me with 4days to travel somewhere on my own.

Knowing how much it make my best friend, Robin Karlsson, jealous, i decided to go to Parma for a few days. And it was also very conveniently located between Perugia and Milan.

My hotel was located right by the trainstation, so there was no hassle in finding that at least. But two things that actually was hard was to find a place to eat, and Parma's Soccer stadium.
I ended up not finding any food, due to the stupid siesta, so my tummy was growling for a couple of hours until i was able to find a small pizza place to eat in.
That first day i mostly just walked around, took some pictures of the Cathedral, and of their huge baptistery, made the one in Florence look very small, but luckily for Florence, the baptistery in Parma was far less decorated.

That next day i went for the walk of my life, all just to find a soccer shop so that i could get a soccer jersy for Robin. But i ended up walking for 5 hours not finding a single sports store (!). So with my "flawless" italian and a map, i tried to ask people where i could find a sports store. "Dove e un negozio Calcio" was a very useful phrase that helped me get to the right place. An hours walk from where i already where.... When finally arriving at the store... they didnot have Parma shirts left, at least not game shirts. And you could not get your name on it anyway until Monday. So i called Robin and we made an agreement to fix everything when i got back to Sweden.
So that night was spent in bed, just worn out from the days long travels.

Sunday was really un-exciting, but i walked around the soccer stadium, in further hopes of making Robin jealous, which worked 😊 That day was mostly just about getting ready for Monday mornings train ride to Milan.

Arriving in Milan, which is an awesome city by the way, i was only 20 minutes old in the city when i had to help some lost Americans to palazzo di Venezia (I think it was at least) So with my iPhone i directed them the right way, do i really look that Italian? Because they where very pleased when i said yes to the question if i spoke English. I must have been the suit i was wearing... and of course the pink tie!

Finding the hotel was pretty hassle free, and it was a very nice hotel! In the lobby i had fixed so that i would be able to pick Ida up from the airport in what they said was a Limousine, more about that later though...

That first day i walked down in search of the Cathedral of Milan, or Duomo, and when i found it... oh wow, what a magnificent sight! The exterior is probably the most beautiful sight i have ever seen, on a building. There are some exteriors on other things that had it beat, but she wasn't arriving yet 😉
Standing there in front of it, you really could appreciate all the hard work that has been put into this magnificent building! it was just mind blowing to be there!
The rest of that day was spent mostly walking around and getting some pictures.

That following day, was the day, the day that Ida arrived to Italy! I got up early and had myself a nice breakfast before i got ready and put on my suit to go down to the lobby. You remember that i said that i had booked a Limousine for the pickup, or at least that is what they told me that i was paying for. But when i get down there, there stands a regular mini-van... talk about disappointing. But i was sure that she wouldn't mind the van, but still, would have been fun to pick her up in a Limo!

But well at the airport none of that mattered. I was just so happy to see her again! That day we just walked around on the town, just enjoying each others company. We did walk in to the church, which i had saved for the both of us to do. And it might not have been as magnificent as it was from the outside, but it was still very impressing.
There was something odd about it though, well firstly it was very crowded, which was weird considering it being such a enormous church, but i could also be because there was a mass going on and that part of the church was closed of, forcing everyone to be cramped around the sealed of area.
But in the air, high up in the arcades, where a faint mist, or it was just very blurry. Anyhow, it was kind of weird.

Second day in Milan was spent looking for Santa Maria Delle Grazie, for in that church resides the Last Supper Painted by Leonardo da Vinci. Having found it after searching for a couple of hours, mostly because i led us to the wrong place, we found out that if you wanted to go in, you had to have a booked appointment. Well we didn't so we had to leave without seeing it. But then we went for another goose chase, once again because i led us wrong, searching for San Siro, the soccer stadium of Milan and Inter Milan. But that ended in fiasco and we gave up the search, but then i ask you: How can you not find one of the biggest soccer stadiums there is? It was not visible from anywhere and no signs led to it.... Italian soccer is just wierd!

That following day we took of to Venice, mostly because we didn't want to stay in Milan the entire time. Luckily i studied, however briefly, the map where our hotel should be, and we found it straight away down a small alley. For once i think Ida was impressed by me 😉
That day in Venice was great, just walking around those mazes of streets was really cool. The highlight of Venice was finding St.Marks, a beautiful building with gorgeous surroundings. But then, it all turnde "bad". Instead of walking the same way back to our hotel, we decided that we should go a different way back, following the ocean. Well, we ended up in the industrial area of Venice, and out in the harbor. It was cozy, if you are a murderer. So here we walked pretty fast to see if we could get out of there. Luckily we had a younger woman walking about 50 meters ahead of us, so we followed her in hopes of getting back to the train station, i'm sure she felt stalked.... But nevertheless, we got back by following her, and both me and Ida were really relieved that we got back safe!

The following day was our last in Venice, so we decided we should go on the Gondolas. Luckily we found one and took a 30 minutes/100euro trip around the smaller canals. It was really nice and very romantic, i thing all couples should do when visiting Venice. Just upon getting back to the hotel to get our stuff, the rain starts to pour down. Luckily, we avoided it pretty nicely!

This was Ida's last day with me in Italy, so we really didn't do much at all, which was very nice! We did get hungry though, so when we defied the pouring rain to get food, we also got my niece a present. But the food we ate, was McDonald's. Oh and it was very nice indeed! But a day later, i noticed two McDonald's only two minutes away from where we stayed, instead of a wet subway ride from the day before.

That next day was very sad, having to say goodbye to her. But knwoing that it would only be three weeks until i saw her again, made it less sad 😊 That last day i had left in Milan, was very chill. I did not do too much, instead i went on a hunt for some groceries. I took a while but i got some food at last 😊

Then the following moring followed a few hours of trainrides until i finally made it back to Villa Pieve in Corciano, Perugia. Now we are going to start our printmaking class, excited to see what that might bring!

Ciao my few readers! (Ida, Mom&Dad, possibly my brother and sister, Harry Potter, and Joey)

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